Smartmatic in line for a big payday Newsmax chief said in 2020 ‘we have no evidence’ election was rigged, but aired those claims anyway, Smartmatic alleges (msn.com) Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy knew the right-wing cable outlet had no evidence to back up its claims that Smartmatic was involved in rigging the 2020 election even as it continued to push the lies on its air, an attorney for the voting technology company alleged on Thursday. During a key pre-trial hearing Thursday in Smartmatic’s defamation case against Newsmax, the attorney, Erik Connolly, cited several instances of employees of the cable network admitting they had no proof of the election fraud claims, including a Nov. 12, 2020 internal email from Ruddy in which he said, “We have no evidence.” .................................... The attorney said that “some of the hosts were privately expressing doubt about the claims and accusations” against Smartmatic as they were being promoted on the network’s air. Several of the network’s hosts, he said, never believed them and were “joking about the accusations in their text messages” with one another. “They did not tell their audience there is no evidence for what is being said here. ‘We have no evidence, the people on our show have no evidence. People are just talking.’ They knew that truth,” Connolly said. “They knew they had no evidence.”
I am less bothered by the sliver of people that are idiotic enough to believe the conspiracies and more bothered by those who are either willfully ignorant or act like Trump's lies about it are not a fatal flaw, just something to be ignored.
What you, and we, should be most bothered by are the litany of states legislatures that relied on these blatant lies to enact new voting laws creating (among other things) partisan discretionary boards to effect voter decisions made at the ballot box. Just look at what’s going on in Georgia today with the newly created state election board still making last minute changes nearly 4 years after the last election was declared lawful and fair by numerous means and methods. I’ll take “Solutions to Non-Existent Problems for $2,000, Alex” Brad Raffensperger calls Georgia Election Rule Changes misguided, criticizes state board
It's only a matter of time before Newsmax and well as other right-wing media outlets end up agreeing to settlement agreements similar to Fox News's $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems or end up on the wrong side of defamation lawsuits similar to the one filed against Rudy Giuliani by Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. Jury Awards Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss $148,169,000 in Damages
I think the issue is more complex. His followers wanted to believe he won, wanted to believe the President, and wanted to believe Giuliani—the hero of 911. And so they took to distrusting credible media outlets and deep-diving through social media know-it-all pundits who said what the pay wanted to hear. Otherwise very intelligent people fell for this crap to such an extent that they stormed the Capital, believing they were doing it to SAVE democracy, not destroy it. That’s vile.
No one wants to talk about it or even think about since he lost anyways, but the chances Trump didn't cheat in his favor in 2020 are slim and none. He's cheated on everything in his life.
that's the perplexing part. lots of very intelligent people forego that intelligence and logic and just agree with what jt tells them. makes no sense, they aren't stupid people, just refusing to recognize that the emperor has no robes. just like the germans under hitler, far from stupid but still believed in the final solution
cheat? needs to be defined. He certainly enjoyed illegal campaign benefits and support from foreign propaganda machines.
New business model: Cause narcissistic injury to Trump by being involved in him losing, forcing him to lie about you which forces Fox News and the mini-Fox Newses to also lie about you, then profit.